11-23-2010, 04:14 PM
0
A hardworking Brooklyn mother hacked to death this morning with a samurai sword by her actor son might still be alive if cops didn’t wait nearly an hour to break down her apartment door, neighbors said.
Clinton Clare, who lives downstairs from the apartment victim Yannick Brea, 55, shared with her son Michael Brea, a 31-year-old bit part actor who had roles in "Ugly Betty" said he first heard screams about 1 a.m.
"I heard Michael chanting and asking his mother if she believed in God. He’d flipped out. I heard screams and called the police," the 52-year-old Clare said.
"They came 15 minutes later and would not knock down the door. They just kept standing there for 45 minutes. I think she’d be alive if they hadn’t taken so long," Clare said.
Clare said the police kept asking him if he had a key to the Brea’s apartment, and eventually left to call for backup. When Emergency Services cops arrived, they knocked down the door to the apartment about 2:20 a.m. and found a gruesome scene, with Yannick kneeling in the bathroom with multiple stab wounds to her head.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly today defended the response.
"It was a barricaded situation," Kelly said. "When there is a barricade situation responding patrol officers, if possible, wait for Emergency Services Unit to respond, they’re trained psychological technicians, they have additional equipment that enables them to perhaps better protect themselves to go through the door. We don’t know what type of weapon the individual could have had."
Michael Brea was taken into custody and then to Kings County Hospital, where he is undergoing psychiatric evaluation. Charges are pending against Brea, whom Kelly said had no criminal record.
Two other neighbors, Vernal Bent and his mother Phyllis, said they heard yelling from the floor below
"I heard a shriek and a woman yelling ’help me’," Vernal Bent said. "We called 911 and we kept hearing screams and then we didn’t hear them any more. Michael was chanting Biblical phrases and kept calling for Moses, Jerusalem and the ‘architect of the universe’."
"I think he just snapped," Bent said.
Phyllis, who refused to give her last name, said she was friends with Yannick and that the woman would frequently bring them traditional Haitian food.
Mustafa Nashal, who owns a deli a half block away, said Yannick would make him her special chicken and rice a few times a week.
"She treated me like a son. She’d come in every day for five or ten dollars of Lottery tickets. She was here last night," said Nashal, 33.
She once worked at the Marriott at the World Trade Center but left after the hotel was destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, neighbors said.
She currently worked at another Marriott in Brooklyn as a housekeeper, and was also a regular at St. Theresa Avila not far from her Park Place home. Clare said Michael’s twin brother Marcel, a martial arts instructor, also lived with his mother, who neighbors said was separated from her husband but still on friendly terms.
In addition to his acting, Michael Brea was also an entrepreneur who previously owned a Subway franchise at 1709 Broadway in Brooklyn, where he was known for giving out free turkey subs on Thanksgiving. The fanchise was taken away a year ago because of poor performance.
Michael’s unidentified ex-girlfriend drove up to the four-story building at one point this morning and stood outside crying. She then drove off.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brook...z168eZWm4n
Clinton Clare, who lives downstairs from the apartment victim Yannick Brea, 55, shared with her son Michael Brea, a 31-year-old bit part actor who had roles in "Ugly Betty" said he first heard screams about 1 a.m.
"I heard Michael chanting and asking his mother if she believed in God. He’d flipped out. I heard screams and called the police," the 52-year-old Clare said.
"They came 15 minutes later and would not knock down the door. They just kept standing there for 45 minutes. I think she’d be alive if they hadn’t taken so long," Clare said.
Clare said the police kept asking him if he had a key to the Brea’s apartment, and eventually left to call for backup. When Emergency Services cops arrived, they knocked down the door to the apartment about 2:20 a.m. and found a gruesome scene, with Yannick kneeling in the bathroom with multiple stab wounds to her head.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly today defended the response.
"It was a barricaded situation," Kelly said. "When there is a barricade situation responding patrol officers, if possible, wait for Emergency Services Unit to respond, they’re trained psychological technicians, they have additional equipment that enables them to perhaps better protect themselves to go through the door. We don’t know what type of weapon the individual could have had."
Michael Brea was taken into custody and then to Kings County Hospital, where he is undergoing psychiatric evaluation. Charges are pending against Brea, whom Kelly said had no criminal record.
Two other neighbors, Vernal Bent and his mother Phyllis, said they heard yelling from the floor below
"I heard a shriek and a woman yelling ’help me’," Vernal Bent said. "We called 911 and we kept hearing screams and then we didn’t hear them any more. Michael was chanting Biblical phrases and kept calling for Moses, Jerusalem and the ‘architect of the universe’."
"I think he just snapped," Bent said.
Phyllis, who refused to give her last name, said she was friends with Yannick and that the woman would frequently bring them traditional Haitian food.
Mustafa Nashal, who owns a deli a half block away, said Yannick would make him her special chicken and rice a few times a week.
"She treated me like a son. She’d come in every day for five or ten dollars of Lottery tickets. She was here last night," said Nashal, 33.
She once worked at the Marriott at the World Trade Center but left after the hotel was destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, neighbors said.
She currently worked at another Marriott in Brooklyn as a housekeeper, and was also a regular at St. Theresa Avila not far from her Park Place home. Clare said Michael’s twin brother Marcel, a martial arts instructor, also lived with his mother, who neighbors said was separated from her husband but still on friendly terms.
In addition to his acting, Michael Brea was also an entrepreneur who previously owned a Subway franchise at 1709 Broadway in Brooklyn, where he was known for giving out free turkey subs on Thanksgiving. The fanchise was taken away a year ago because of poor performance.
Michael’s unidentified ex-girlfriend drove up to the four-story building at one point this morning and stood outside crying. She then drove off.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brook...z168eZWm4n
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